Electrotyping

electrotyping,electroforming process for making duplicate plates for relief, or letterpress, printing. The process was first announced in 1838 by M.H. von Jacobi, a German working in St. Petersburg, Russia. Thomas Spencer and C.J. Jordan of England and Joseph A. Adams of the United States produced similar results the following year.

An electrotype, or electro, is made by electroplating a thin shell of copper or other metal onto a mold, usually wax, of the original cut or type form and then removing the mold and backing the shell with metal. More durable than type and cuts, electros are used instead of the original for long press runs, to avoid wear and damage to expensive type and halftones or linecuts. Electrotypes also can duplicate and replace linoleum cuts, woodcuts, and wood engravings.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.